In honor of Datsun's return to the South Pacific, let us tell the story of Fuji and Sakura, two Datsuns that entered the toughest rally in the world, Austrailia's 1958 Mobilgas Trial, and won. This video made by Nissan memorializes their beat-the-odds journey.

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The team who started that effort, the team responsible for the legendary 510 and the 240Z, got their start taking two little Datsun 210s to the Mobilgas Trial, a rally all the way around Australia. You try and imagine yourself driving the whole length of the continental US in a 13-foot-long '50s econobox. Now imagine that at race pace and you'll begin to understand this trail.

Datsun just wanted to use the rally as an extended test, but they ended up coming first and fourth in their class. It was the first victory of a Japanese race car outside of Japan.

Nissan's video does a great job at telling the story of the two cars, and if you're wondering how these cars got back into such beautiful shape, you can watch Nissan's exhaustive restoration project here.